There are few rules you have to follow when you're on a jury. One of the most important is that you're not supposed to talk about the case. Guess what, tweeting inane musings about it isn't okay either.

The BBC reports that the Arkansas Supreme Court has overturned the murder conviction of Erickson Dimas-Martinez because a juror was tweeting during the trial. Let's reiterate what happened. A juror couldn't stop tweeting, so the convicted murderer of 17-year old Derrick Jefferson gets a new trial.

Advertisement

Here are the tweets juror Randy Franco sent:

Choices to be made. Hearts to be broken... We each define the great line.

The coffee here sucks

Court. Day 5. here we go again

While the second two tweets seem innocuous, the attorneys for Dimas-Martinez appealed the conviction. A circuit judge denied the motion because Franco never tweeted any specifics about the case. But, the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned that decision. According to Associate Judge Donald Corbin, "Even if such discussions were one-sided, it is in no way appropriate for a juror to state musings, thoughts or other information about a case in such a public fashion."

Advertisement

In other words, don't talk about the trial while you're on a jury. [BBC via Geekosystem]